Kansas coach Bill Self: 'The kids and their families are pawns' when it comes to runners, agents

Speaking during a luncheon in Kansas City on Wednesday, Kansas basketball coach Bill Self had some interesting words about the recent surge of issues surrounding agents and runners in the recruiting process of high school athletes.

Gary Bedore of the Lawrence Journal-World has all the details as Self gave a 10-minute speech then spent 20 minutes in a question-and-answer session with the audience.

"That's probably the biggest problem we have in college athletics today — third parties who try to get their claws into kids at a pretty young age," Self said.

"Our sport is more unique than football, where you don't have summer environments outside the school where other people are around your kids all the time. Players don't go to AAU football camps so the coaches and parents still control what is going on.

"In basketball, you have third parties outside of the scholastic life that are living with your children. They are traveling with your children. They are paying the way for all these kids across America to do things, so naturally they gain influence, which is not all bad, because a lot of people need direction.

"You can get influence that is negative because they see these kids as being ways to benefit themselves later. The ones who are in it for the wrong reasons, which is a small percentage of them, are making them (kids and parents) feel maybe the families owe them something.

"The biggest thing we can do ... the NCAA is trying to crack down big-time. They are trying to get their arms around it, but it's a cloud. It's hard to get your arms around a cloud. ...

"The kids and their families are pawns. (Let's say) somebody is cutting their lights on in a single-parent's home in the ghetto. They (prospect and parent see that as, 'We don't have electricity. That person is helping me,' when in all honesty they may be helping but also digging in a little bit. It is a hard thing to manage. The NCAA is doing its best to do that."

That is most certainly a long-winded answer to a relatively tough question. But Self's argument is a valid one -- where families that see something as simply 'help' could mean much more to the person offering that assistance, especially for highly recruited players that have a future in the professional ranks.

With all the money paid for the travel teams that recruits play on, where does that stop becoming necessities and become benefits that would constitue NCAA violations?

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